Rove is a new and upcoming shopping and travel platform, and I’m a big fan. There are always skeptics as new programs tend to overextend themselves, but I’m here for it and will be as long as it continues. This is how I’m taking advantage of what they have to offer and how I’m earning and using Rove miles.
My link to sign up if you feel so inclined.
What is Rove, and what are Rove Miles?
Rove is a free-to-join independent travel loyalty program and booking portal. It’s similar to other portals out there, like Expedia, Hotels.com, etc, but its point ecosystem is far more flexible and valuable. Rather than earning a set “cash” back that can be used only for future bookings, it allows users to earn transferable Rove miles. Transferable miles that can be used to book future flights and hotels, but can also be transferred out to airline and hotel partners.
“Rove Miles are the most valuable rewards currency that you can earn from everyday spend and travel bookings, redeemable across a wide range of airlines, hotels, and global loyalty programs.” – Rove
Through Rove, these miles can be earned from hotel and airline bookings, as well as via their own shopping portal. Their shopping portal is similar to other shopping portals and, in many instances, is competitive or even better.
Why Rove Miles can be so Valuable
There are a couple of things that really set Rove Miles apart from other platforms and transferable currencies.
Most loyalty points, like Expedia One Cash, are stuck in the Expedia ecosystem and only have a set value. Rove, on the other hand, when used on their platform, can have variable redemption value. For example, flights can be booked with an average of 1.5x and hotels can be as high as 4.3x. This means that $100 of One Cash will get you $100 off a booking, where $100 of Rove Miles could get you as much as $400 off a hotel.
Rove takes this flexibility to the next level by allowing members to transfer Rove miles out to airline and hotel partners. This is huge. The ability to transfer to partners opens the door for incredible value. I won’t go into the weeds right here on getting value from transferring, but there’s a lot of room for potential. You can check out my posts on Japan, Thailand, and Tahiti, or read to the bottom.
Earning Rove Miles
The best way to earn Rove miles is by booking travel through their portal. Both hotels and flights earn Rove miles, with hotels earning them at the best rate. You can filter your hotel searches by redemptions and multipliers. Every location and every hotel is different, but there are some incredible rates available.
I’m not about to spend $677 on a single hotel night, but you can see an extreme example of how miles are earned or redeemed.
I’m planning a trip to Bangkok, and this is a better example of the rates. Although hotels in Thailand are really cheap, and this is still a little steep for our plans, you get the idea.
If you’re booking hotels already, likely through a platform like Expedia or hotels.com, you should consider Rove, as the miles can be far more valuable and flexible.
Rove Shopping
After travel, you’ve got the shopping portal. As with all shopping portals, rates vary but it’s always worth looking before you do any online shopping. If you’re new to shopping portals, you find what you’re looking for, follow the link, and purchase as you normally would via the retailer’s site. For example, if you’re looking to buy some Nikes, you’d hop on Rove, find Nike, follow the link, and buy your shoes as you normally would with your normal credit card. The purpose of shopping portals is to earn your regular credit card points as well as, in this case, Rove Miles.
One of my favorite shopping portal links is giftcards.com. From here, you can purchase the giftcards you need for whatever may not be on the portal, and continue to earn points.
If you’re shopping online anyway, you might as well take the extra step and earn yourself some transferable points.
It’s worth looking for everything. Their offerings range from Nike and Home Depot to business services like Shopify or software companies.
It’s worth noting that another great shopping portal that earns cash back, or Amex points if applicable, is Rakuten.
Takeaway
I am all for any additional methods of earning transferable miles and points, so I’m really excited about Rove Miles. I know it probably seems like a lot and too much work, but my “too much work” has taken us to some incredible places in some incredible business class seats. Take the extra steps and start accumulating.
What are you waiting for?
My Rove Miles Strategy
My strategy with most things miles and points related is to get as many miles and points out of whatever I’m doing as possible. In this case, I plan to shift all my non-credited hotel bookings to Rove. It’s an easy adjustment. I say non-credited because I get about $900 a year in travel credits from credit cards, so those, of course, are used first.
I don’t book a lot of flights via portals; I always prefer direct, but I will certainly look to see if it makes sense through the Rove Portal moving forward.
The shopping portal is what I’m really excited about. Most portals, like Rakuten that I mentioned earlier, have cash back or points rates for giftcards.com, but none are as high as Rove. As of writing, the rate is 3.2x for nearly everything or 2.6x for Mastercard or Visa eGift cards. Rakuten is 1.5x. Rove also has regular promos where the rates for giftcards jump even higher. They’ve had brands like Airbnb and Delta as high as 5x, with the Mastercard and Visa cards as high as 4x.
The Weeds
My strategy may not be for everyone, so bear with me. I’ve been consistently buying Mastercard Egiftcards to pay for anything online and all the bills that I can. The reason this may not be for everyone is because there is a fee, and fees are typically a deal breaker. Here’s how I justify it.
As of writing, I can get a $250 Mastercard Egiftcard for a fee of $5.95. $250 is the highest denomination, so it becomes the best option. At the current 2.6x rate, I earn 650 Rove Miles for this purchase. This means for $5.95, I earn 650 Rove Miles. At the very basic level, or 1:1, I’m essentially paying $5.95 for $6.50 worth of travel, in one form or another.
Now, many people might say that’s dumb; if I don’t have a specific redemption in mind, then it’s not fair to value it at anything other than a loss of $5.95. I see your point, but I like to travel, and I will use these points in one form or another, so it makes sense to me. At the very least, I could argue that I’m slowly putting money aside for a future hotel. I do that already; this is just another form.
That being said, a quick Rove flight/hotel search shows that most redemption rates are roughly 1.5x, with hotels having more potential of being higher. So, that 650 now becomes $9.75-$15. Pressumptive, yes. Possible and likely, absolutely.
Back to the promos, I’ve purchased a few when the Egiftcards were going for 4x. That’s $5.95 for 1000 Rove Miles or roughly $15-$20 in value. They even offer deals like spend $100 and get a $10 giftcards.com giftcard. The fee of $5.95 looks a bit uglier with only a $100 card, but I’m coming out on top with Capital One miles, Rove miles, and $4.05 profit.
If we really dive into the weeds, we get to transfer partners. The real golden egg when it comes to transferable currencies.
I just booked a $2200 business class ticket from Tokyo to Seattle for 55,000 Japan Airlines Miles. At face value, that is 4cpp or cents per point in value. (2200/55000=0.04) Rove transfers to Japan Airlines. You see how crazy valuable these points can be? Now, it would take a hot minute to get those points from spending, but between promos and booking travel, you can see how one might reasonably earn enough points for that flight in a relatively short amount of time.
To make it even sweeter, Rove is running a 50% transfer bonus right now to Japan Airlines. That means the 55,000 business class ticket would only cost 37,000 points. Considering I’m buying 650-1000 Rove Miles for $5.95, I could potentially have bought this $2200 business class flight for $220. (37,000 miles / 1000 miles / $5.95 = $220)
Again, I recognize this is a very specific case, but the potential is endless. I’m earning points on my credit card as I normally would, and I’m earning Rove Miles to later top off or fully cover an award flight.
A few more great examples to consider. Cathay Pacific Business class can be booked for 88,000 Asia Miles. I just did it. Economy tickets for the same route to Hong Kong can be booked for 27,000 miles. That’s an easily reachable number.
AirFrance/KLM economy flights to Europe can be booked for as low as 20,000 points.
Want a really extreme example? Lufthansa has no credit card partner,s so no one to transfer points from. Until Rove came along. Economy flights to Europe can be booked for 88 miles and about $200.
You can also transfer into the Avios system. That includes British Airways, Finnair, Qatar, and others.
The Headfirst Dive
This is a run, jump, and headfirst dive into the weeds. There are oppertunities to spend money on nonrefundable hotels through Rove that will instantly deposit miles into your account. Let’s go back to this example of the $677 a night hotel.
If you booked two nights here at a refundable rate, you would spend $1355 and earn 70,460 Rove miles. Now you could certainly go stay there if you wanted, or you could forget about it and transfer points and fly to Japan in a $2200 business class seat. This is one example of many, but in certain instances, if it makes sense, you can essentially buy yourself extrememly discounted airline tickets.
Let’s look at a better, more likely example. You could book this one week stay in Hong Kong for $1900 and earn 63,583 Rove miles.
It only takes 54,000 Cathay Pacific Miles to fly round trip to Hong Kong. So, for less than $2,000 you could take a one week trip with flights and hotels. Noted, this is only for one person, but hopefully you get the idea.
Final Wrap Up
There is so much potential with Rove, and you’d be a fool to sleep on it. I’ve been very lightly shopping and buying eGiftcards, and I have just under 20,000 Rove Miles. Im on my way to a one way ticket to Europe. Combined with my other miles and points, I just saved myself a lot.
So, what are you waiting for? Sign up for Rove and get on it.